Ethnic and Racial Identities of Second-Generation Black
Immigrants in New York City
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Waters, Mary C. 1994. Ethnic and racial identities of secondgeneration black immigrants in New York City. International
Migration Review 28, no. 4: 795-820.
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doi:10.2307/2547158
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Ethnic
and
Racial
Identities
Second-Generation
Immigrants
of
Black
in
New
York
City
Mary C Waters1
Harvard University
This article explores the types of racial and ethnic identities
adopted
of 83 adolescent
West Indian and
second-generation
by a sample
in New York City. The subjective understandings
Haitian Americans
these youngsters
have of being American, of being black American, and
of their ethnic identities are described and contrasted with the identities
and reactions of first-generation
from the same countries.
immigrants
- a
Three types of identities are evident among the second generation
black American
an ethnic or hyphenated
national
identity,
origin
and an immigrant
different
identities
are
identity. These
identity,
related to different perceptions
and understandings
of race relations
in the United
and of opportunities
States. Those youngsters
who
and
tend to see more racial discrimination
identify as black Americans
limits to opportunities
for blacks in the United
States. Those who
and
identify as ethnic West Indians tend to see more opportunities
rewards for individual
effort and initiative. I suggest that assimilation
to America for the second-generation
black immigrant
is complicated
with upwardly mobile secondby race and class and their interaction,
ethnic ties to their parents' national
generation
maintaining
youngsters
to the black
origins and with poor inner city youngsters
assimilating
American peer culture that surrounds them.
to the United States since
The growth of nonwhite
voluntary immigrants
1965 challenges
the dichotomy
which once explained
different patterns of
- the ethnic
American inclusion and assimilation
of
pattern of assimilation
from
children
and
their
racial
and
the
of
immigrants
pattern
Europe
exclusion
of America's
nonwhite
The
new
wave
of
immigrants
peoples.
includes people who are still defined "racially" in the United States, but who
and often under an immigrant
migrate to the United States voluntarily
system which selects for people with jobs and education that puts
preference
in the economy.
them well above their "co-ethnics"
Do the processes
of
and
for
nonwhite
assimilation
resemble the proc?
immigration
immigrants
esses for earlier white immigrants?
Or do these immigrants
and their
children face very different choices and constraints because they are defined
racially by other Americans?
This research was supported by a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation, and by a John
Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. I would like to thank Maggi Apollon, Kayode Owens, Crystal
Byndloss, Jimmy Phillippe, and Lisa Walkefor research assistance. I am grateful for comments
on an earlier version of this article from Christine Williams, Carolyn Boyes-Watson, Nancy
Foner, Niobe Way,Bonnie Leadbeater, and three anonymous reviewers.
IMR
Vol. xxviii, No. 4
795
International
796
Migration
Review
a small piece of this puzzle - the question of the
examines
of
an
"ethnic
of black
identity" among the second generation
development
the
States
from
the
While
to
United
Caribbean.
there
has
been
immigrants
and affiliations
amount of interest in the identities
of immi?
a substantial
there has been very little research
on the
grants from the Caribbean,
in the United
identities of their children. The children of black immigrants
or
States face a choice about whether they will identify as black Americans
an ethnic identity reflecting
their parents'
whether
they will maintain
black immigrants
to the United States
national
origins. First-generation
from American blacks, stressing their
have tended to distance themselves
national origins and ethnic identities as Jamaican or Haitian or Trinidadian,
but they also face overwhelming
pressures in the United States to identify
only as "blacks" (Stafford, 1987; Foner, 1987; Sutton and Makiesky, 1975;
as
1989; Kasinitz, 1992). In fact, they have been described
Woldemikael,
"invisible immigrants"
1972), because rather than being
(Bryce-Laporte,
how Jamaicans
contrasted with other immigrants
(for example, contrasting
with Chinese),
have
been
are doing as compared
to black
compared
they
of black immigrants,
The children
because
lack
Americans.
their
they
can
choose
to
be
even
more
distinctive
invisible
as
ethnics
accents,
parents'
West Indians in the United States
than their parents. Second-generation
will most often be seen by others as merely "American" - and must actively
work to assert their ethnic identities.
This
article
The types of racial and ethnic identities adopted by a sample of secondin New York City are
West Indians2 and Haitian Americans
generation
with
these youngsters
have
here,
along
subjective understandings
explored
of being American,
of being black American,
and of their ethnic identities.
After a short discussion of current theoretical approaches
to understanding
assimilation
three types of identities adopted
among the second generation,
of the second generation
are described
and the different
by members
and
of
race
relations
with these
associated
experiences
understandings
different identities are traced. Finally this article suggests some implications
for future patterns of identity development.
the English-speaking
islands of the Caribbean
has
the twentieth century, but numbers of immi?
throughout
the
grants coming from the West Indies and Haiti really grew following
in
law
in
1965
the
1987; Kasinitz,
immigration
(Bryce-Laporte,
change
to the 1990 census, there were 1,455,294
1992). According
foreign-born
blacks in the United States or 4.8 percent of blacks nationwide.
The vast
of
are
from
the
Caribbean.
Miami
these
and
New
York
majority
City are the
cities for these immigrants,
and the concentration
chief destination
of
Immigration
been substantial
from
The families of the teens were from 12 different countries including: Jamaica (31%);Trinidad
(21%); Guyana (16%); Barbados (10%); Haiti (10%); Grenada (5%) and a few each from the
smaller islands on Montserrat, Saint Thomas, Anguilla, Saint Lucia, Dominica and Nevis.
Second-Generation
Black Immigrants
797
is much higher
in these cities.
blacks and their children
foreign-born
in New York is foreign
Currently, about 25 percent of the black population
born, with a substantial and growing second generation
(because the census
it
is
to know
does not ask a birthplace-of-parents
impossible
question,
how
West
Indians
there
are
exactly
many second-generation
currently in
I conducted
the United States). During 1990-1992,
in-depth interviews of
in New York City, designed
and their children
to explore
immigrants
assimilation
patterns and issues of racial and ethnic identity.
The overall study was designed
of immigrant
to explore the processes
the
and
accommodation
to
United
to
trace
States,
adaptation
generational
and identification,
and to explore the reactions of
changes in adaptation
and their children to American race relations. Interviews with
immigrants
who interacted
black and white Americans
with the first and second gen?
erations were included in order to understand
the dynamic and interactive
of self- and other-identification
and the development
of ethnic
processes
attitudes
and stereotypes.
The first-generation
and their
respondents
American co-workers were drawn from two worksites - unskilled workers at
a food service company in downtown
Manhattan
and middle-class
school?
teachers in the New York City school system. The entire study included
83 second-genera?
in-depth interviews with 72 first-generation
immigrants,
tion immigrants,
In total,
27 whites, and 30 native-born
black Americans.3
the study draws from 212 in-depth interviews that lasted between one and
two hours. They were conducted
by myself (a white female) and a team of
three research assistants,
two of whom are second-generation
Caribbean
Americans
and one a black American.
Interviews with first-generation
and their American co-work?
immigrants
ers reveal a great deal of tension between foreign-born
and American-born
blacks in both the working-class
and the middle-class
worksites.
Long?
standing tensions between newly arrived West Indians and American blacks
have left a legacy of mutual stereotyping
(see Kasinitz, 1992). The immi?
see
themselves
as
militant about their racial
ambitious,
grants
hard-working,
identities
but not oversensitive
or obsessed with race, and committed
to
and family. They see black Americans
education
as lazy, disorganized,
obsessed with racial slights and barriers, with a disorganized
and laissezfaire
attitude toward family life and child raising. American blacks describe the
as arrogant,
in the workplace,
to
oblivious
selfish, exploited
immigrants
in the United
racial tensions
and politics
and
and
States,
unfriendly
to have relations
with black Americans.
The first generation
unwilling
believes that their status as foreign-born
blacks is higher than American
their identities
as immigrants.
Their
blacks, and they tend to accentuate
while there are many Spanish-speaking immigrants from the Caribbean who also define
themselves or are defined by others as racially black, the identity choices for these people are
quite different than for English-speaking immigrants. The first-generation respondents in this
study were restricted to English-speaking immigrants.
International
798
Migration
Review
that
accent is usually a clear and unambiguous
signal to other Americans
born.
are
foreign
they
is that they grow up exposed
The dilemma facing the second generation
to the negative opinions voiced by their parents about American blacks and
to the belief that whites respond more favorably to foreign-born
exposed
blacks. But they also realize that because they lack their parents' accents
other people, including
their peers,
and other identifying
characteristics,
them as American
blacks. How does the second
are likely to identify
Do they follow their parents' lead and
handle this dilemma?
generation
with
their
ethnic
identities
as Jamaican or Haitian or West Indian?
identify
"American"
Or do they try to become
and reject their parents' ethnic
The
second
identities?
83 adoles?
generation
immigrant
sample included
to tap a range of class backgrounds
cents drawn from four sources designed
and class trajectories.
They include:
1) The
two public inner city
public school sample: teenagers
attending
in
New
I
York
did
schools
where
extensive
and
City
high
interviewing
observation
(45 interviews);
participant
Catholic parochial
2) The church school sample: teenagers
attending
schools in the same inner city neighborhoods
as the public high school
most of these students were not themselves
Catholic)
(14
(although
interviews);
3) The street-based sample: teenagers living in the same inner city neigh?
borhood in Brooklyn who could not be reached through the school either because they had dropped out or would not have responded
to
interviews conducted in a formal setting (15 interviews); and
4) The middle-class
sample: teenagers who had ties to this neighborhood
who were now living there and attending
magnet schools or colleges
outside of the district or whose families had since moved to other areas
of the city or suburbs (9 interviews).
The young people we talked to therefore include teens who are facing
very limited socioeconomic
mobility or downward social mobility (the inner
school
students
and the street group), students in the church
city public
who
are
on
an
upward social trajectory and have a high chance of
sample
going to college, and teens whose families are doing well and who them?
selves would seem to have bright futures. Overall, 16 percent of the 83 teens
were from very poor families on public assistance,
49 percent were from
families with at least one parent working at a low wage job, and 35 percent
families with at least one parent in a job requiring
were from middle-class
a college degree. The age of respondents
ranged from 14-21. The average
17.
The
vast
were
was
16-18.
We included teenagers who
majority
aged
age
had spent at least three years in the United States and who had immigrated
34 (41%) who comprise
before age 16. They included
the classic second
- born in the United States of
14
generation
immigrant
parents. Another
Second-Generation
Black Immigrants
799
to the United States before age 7. The rest of the sample
(17%) immigrated
35 young people who had immigrated
after age 7 and had spent
included
at least three years in the United States. The actual age at immigration
for
these more recent immigrants
varied from 7-15.4
THEORETICAL
APPROACHES
TO ASSIMILATION
of European immigrants
and their
Theories
derived from the experiences
that the longer the time
children in the early twentieth century predicted
spent in the United States, the more exposure to American culture, the more
likely second-generation
youths were to adopt an "American identity" and
to reduce ties to the immigrant
or ethnic identities
and culture of their
model assumes that with each
parents. This "straight line" assimilation
the groups become
more similar to mainstream
succeeding
generation
Americans
and more economically
successful.
For instance,
Warner and
Srole's (1945) study of the ethnic groups in Yankee City (Newburyport,
MA)
march of the ethnic groups
in the early 1930s describes
the generational
and poverty to resi?
from initial residential
and occupational
segregation
and Americanization.
and identificational
dential, occupational
integration
blacks in the 1990s differs in
However, the situation faced by immigrant
of
the
of
the
The
straight line model.
background
many
assumptions
do not enter a society that assumes an undifferentiated
mono?
immigrants
lithic American culture, but rather a consciously
pluralistic society in which
and racial and ethnic identities
coexist. In fact, if
a variety of subcultures
these immigrants
assimilate they assimilate to being not just Americans but
It is generally believed by the immigrants
that it is higher
black Americans.
social status to be an immigrant black than to be an American black. Second,
is very different
now than at the
the economic
structure
opportunity
of the twentieth century. The unskilled jobs in manufacturing
beginning
for job mobility for the immigrants'
that gave opportunities
children at the
in the United
turn of the century have been lost as economic
restructuring
States has shifted to a service economy
also
(Gans, 1992). The immigrants
are quite varied in the skills they bring with them. Some arrive with
to take relatively welladvanced educations
and professional
qualifications
of
native
American
blacks (e.g., Jamaican
which
them
ahead
payingjobs,
put
nurses). Others are less skilled and face difficulties
finding work in the
faced by blacks
United States. Finally, the degree of residential
segregation
Rumbaut (1991) and Rumbaut and Ima (1988) have suggested using the term "generation 1.5"
for youngsters born abroad but educated in whole or part in the United States Others have used
second generation to include both children of immigrants and the immigrants who came as
children (Portes and Zhou, 1993; Jensen, 1990). Circularmigration makes these categories even
more difficult to define as some youngsters who were bom in the United States may have spent
more time in their parents' native country (having returned there often to live for short periods)
than other youngsters who were born abroad but do not return often to their native country.
800
International
Migration
Review
in the United States, whether foreign born or American
born, has always
to be, of a much higher order than the segregation
been, and continues
white immigrants
faced by foreign-born
1980; Massey, 1990).
(Lieberson,
Thus, even with occupational
mobility it is not clear that blacks would be
in the orderly progression
able to move into higher status neighborhoods
that Warner and Srole (1945) describe in their Yankee City study of Euro?
A further complication
for the black second gen?
pean ethnic succession.
is that part of being a black American
eration
with
involves
dealing
and black Americans
American racism. Because immigrants
report a large
in the perception
of racism in American society,
difference
and expectation
of
American
for
the
second
involves developing
becoming
generation
part
a knowledge
and perception
of racism and its effects and subtle nuances.
A few researchers
have examined
the identification
of second-generation
in Evanston, Illinois, in
Caribbean blacks. In a study of Haitian Americans
the 1970s, Woldemikael
(1989) found that the second generation
mostly
as American
black. He found that the first generation
identified
stressed
from American
their differences
faced
blacks, but the second generation
"not so much American,
but Afro-American";
"Afropressure to become
American
students pressured
the Haitian students to adopt their dialect,
and
dress
and
In
1989:94).
styles
ways of behavior" (Woldemikael,
speech
an in-depth study of the experience
of several West Indian children in New
York City schools,
Michael
on these
(1990) also stresses the influence
children in school and on the streets.
children of the Afro-American
New theories
the experiences
of becoming
American
for
describing
recent immigrants
and their children (Gans, 1992; Portes and Zhou, 1993)
stress the multiple and contradictory
paths which can be followed by secondchildren.
Some
achieve
socioeconomic
success while retaining
generation
and identities, while others assimilate to Ameri?
strong ethnic attachments
can subcultures
with limited
socioeconomic
In a 1992 article
mobility.
entitled "Second Generation
Decline," Herbert Gans outlines several sce?
narios of possible socioeconomic
and social integration
of the post-1965
He speculates
second generation.
that the children of the new immigrants
could face socioeconomic
decline relative to their parents' positions because
the children of immigrants
might refuse to accept the low-level, low-pay jobs
at which their parents work.
The other possibility
is that the youngsters
who do not "become Ameri?
can" and adopt the negative attitudes toward school, opportunity,
hard work
and the "American dream" that their American
have
but
peers
adopted,
rather stay tied to their parents' ethnic community
and values, will end up
doing better. Gans (1992) thus suggests that straight-line
theory could be
turned on its head, with "the people who have secured an economically
viable ethnic or other niche acculturating
less than did the European second
and third generations"
and those without such a niche "experiencing
the
Second-Generation
Black Immigrants
801
of second-generation
decline and becoming Ameri?
poverty and joblessness
ethnics" (p. 188).
can faster than other second-generation
case studies, as
Using material from a number of different ethnographic
school children in Miami and San
well as a survey of second-generation
Diego, Portes and Zhou (1993) make a similar argument. They describe the
of the different groups of second-generation
different outcomes
youth as
that
the
mode
of
assimilation."
of
They argue
"segmented
incorporation
creates differential opportunities
and cultural and social
the first generation
networks and values that create differential
capital in the form of ethnicjobs,
of the second generation.
For those immigrant
pulls on the allegiances
in the United States and who reside
groups who face extreme discrimination
in close proximity
to American
minorities
who have faced a great deal of
reactive ethnicity
in the first generation.
The
discrimination,
emerges
ties
whose
to
American
minorities
are
second-generation
youth
stronger
lacks the degree of social capital to provide
and whose parental generation
and protection for the second generation
are likely to develop
opportunities
the "adversarial
stance" that American minorities
such as poor blacks and
hold toward the dominant white society. This adversarial
stance
Hispanics
in the United States is very strong and devalues
stresses that discrimination
For those groups who come with
as a vehicle of advancement.
education
to
in the
ethnic
access
networks,
capital, and less ties to minorities
strong
the first generation.
United
characterizes
Linear
States, linear ethnicity
- the networks of social ties from church and
ethnicity creates social capital
creates ties to job opportunities
and interlacing
ties
voluntary organizations
which reinforce parental authority and values vis-a-vis the second genera?
to the United States and end up
tion. These groups resist acculturation
better
for
the
second
providing
opportunities
generation.
Portes and Zhou (1993) use the experiences
of Chinese and Koreans as
of immigrants
who develop linear ethnicity and develop strong
examples
in the United States. They are contrasted
ethnic communities
with the
Haitians
in
of
Florida
who
are
to
to
the
black
pressured
adapt
example
in
and
American
culture
their
schools.
Portes
Zhou
stress
that
the
peer
adversarial
stance of this peer culture directly contradicts
the immigrant
of upward mobility and educational
success for their
parents' expectations
that casts their lot with America's minority
offspring. The second generation
groups will most likely be at risk of downward social mobility. Association
with ethnic minorities
could prove "a ticket to permanent
subordination
who adopt it" (p. 96).
for the youngsters
and disadvantage
in terms
Both Gans and Portes and Zhou stress the negative consequences
outcomes of adopting an "Ameri?
of aspirations and ultimate socioeconomic
Portes and
can" minority attitude toward school and work opportunities.
Zhou call this an "adversarial
outlook." John Ogbu (1990) describes
a
similar "minority" outlook as an oppositional
frame of reference that he ties
International
802
Migration
Review
of minority groups into the
to historical roots in the involuntary incorporation
society. These ideas are enormously helpful in explaining and understanding
of the second-generation
West Indian youth in this study. In
the experiences
who
seem
described
to be on different socioeconomic
the
here,
fact,
youth
their
racial
and
understand
ethnic
identities differently. Some of
trajectories,
the adolescents we interviewed agree with their parents that the United States
for them. Others disagree with their parents because
holds many opportunities
and hostility from whites will limit their
they believe that racial discrimination
the ideas these youngsters
abilities to meet their goals. By contrasting
have
about their own identities and the role of race in American society, I suggest
and the type of segmented
that social capital among the first generation
assimilation among the second generation varies within ethnic groups as well
as between them. Some Jamaican Americans, for example, are experiencing
downward social mobility while others are maintaining
strong ethnic ties and
success.
achieving socioeconomic
The key factor for the youth I studied is race. The daily discrimination
the type of racial socialization
that the youngsters
experience,
they receive
of race they develop in their peer groups
in the home, the understandings
and at school affect strongly how they react to American society. The ways
in which these youngsters
and react to racial discrimination
experience
the type of racial/ethnic
influences
identity they develop.
PATTERNS
IN
THE
SECOND
GENERATION
The interviews suggest that while there is a great deal of individual variation
in the identities,
and opinions
of these teens, their racial and
perceptions
can be classified into three general types: identifying
ethnic identities
as
as
ethnic
Americans
with
some
from
Americans,
identifying
distancing
or maintaining
an immigrant identity that does not reckon
black Americans,
with American racial and ethnic categories.
A black
American-identified
characterized
the responses
of
identity
83
of
the
42
inter?
percent
approximately
second-generation
respondents
identified with other black Americans.
viewed. These youngsters
They did
not see their "ethnic" identities as important to their self-image. When their
parents or friends criticized American blacks or described what they per?
differences
ceived as fundamental
between Caribbean-origin
people and
American blacks, these youngsters
tended
to
They
disagreed.
downplay an
as
or
Trinidadian
and
described
themselves
as
American.
identity
Jamaican
30 percent of the respondents
Another
a very strong ethnic
adopted
which
involved
a
considerable
amount
of
identity
distancing from American
for these respondents
blacks. It was important
to stress their ethnic identi?
ties and for other people to recognize
that they were not American blacks.
These respondents
tended to agree with parental judgements
that there
Second-Generation
Black
Immigrants
803
between Americans
were strong differences
and West Indians. This often
involved a stance that West Indians were superior to American
blacks in
their behaviors and attitudes.
A final 28 percent of respondents
had more of an immigrant
attitude
than either the American-identified
toward their identities
youth or the
not
but
ethnic-identified
of
these
were more
Most,
all,
youth.
respondents
A crucial factor for these youngsters
themselves.
recent immigrants
is that
their accents and styles of clothing and behavior clearly signaled to others
that they were foreign born. In a sense, their identity as an immigrant
having to make a "choice" about what kind of American
people precluded
These
had a strong identity as Jamaican
were.
or Trinithey
respondents
but did not evidence
much distancing
from American
blacks.
dadian,
Rather their identities
were strongly linked to their experiences
on the
islands, and they did not worry much about how they were seen by other
white or black.
Americans,
A number of factors influence the type of identity the youngsters
develop.
These include the social class background
of the parents, the social networks
the parents were involved in, the type of school the child attended,
and the
family structure. All of these factors affect the ability of parents and other
to shield children from neighborhood
family members
peer groups that
antischool
values.
espouse
There tended to be a strong relationship
between the type of identity and
race and ethnic relations that the youngsters
outlook on American
devel?
and/or their social class trajectory.
oped and their social class background
The ethnic-identified
were most likely to come from a middleyoungsters
class background.
Of the total of 83 second-generation
teens and young
57 percent of the middle-class5
adults interviewed,
teens identified
ethni?
cally, whereas only 17 percent of the working class and poor teens identified
students
were most likely to be immigrant
The poorest
or
ethnically.
American-identified.
Only one out of the twelve teens whose parents were
on public assistance identified ethnically. The American-identified,
perhaps
not surprisingly,
were also more likely to be born in the United States - 67
of the American-identified
were born in the United
States, as
percent
13
to
of
the
or
42
only
percent
opposed
immigrant-identified
percent of
the ethnically-identified.
Parents with more education
and income were able to provide better
schools for their offspring.
some of the middle
Among the respondents,
class had moved from the inner city neighborhoods
they had originally
in the borough
of Queens or to
settled in to middle-class
neighborhoods
suburban areas where the schools were of higher quality academically
and
?Middle class was defined as having at least one parent with a college degree or a professional
or business position. Working class was defined as a parent with a low-skill job; poor were
students whose parents were not currently employed.
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Other middle-class
more likely to be racially integrated.
parents sent their
children to Catholic parochial schools or to citywide magnet schools such
as Brooklyn Tech or Stuyvesant.
They were thus far more likely to attend
children and with other middle-class
whites
schools with other immigrant
schools
some of the Catholic
the
and blacks, although
students
high
attended were also all black in enrollment.
The children of middle-class
parents who did attend the local high schools
were likely to be recent immigrants who had an immigrant identity. Because
in the West Indies, these students were the best
of their superior education
in the local high schools, attended honors classes and were bound for college.
The children of middle-class
identified
and
parents who were American
their
own
future
and
about
antischool
opportunities
adopted
pessimistic
ideologies were likely to have arrived early in their lives and to have attended
New York City public schools in inner city areas from an early age.
the type of identity the
The social networks of parents also influenced
social
children developed.
of
class,
parents who were involved
Regardless
in their churches
in ethnic voluntary
or
involved
heavily
organizations
seemed to instill a strong sense of ethnic identity in their children. Parents
whose social networks transcended
boundaries
seemed
to
neighborhood
have more ability to provide guidance and social contacts for their children.
The two neighborhood
schools where we interviewed
were among the
five most dangerous
schools in New York City - they were inadequate
facilities with crumbling physical buildings, high drop-out rates, and serious
problems with violence. Both schools were all minority, with over 90 percent
of the student body composed
of black students, both American and foreign
born. The students who attended these schools and were not in the separate
honors tract (which was overwhelmingly
filled with newly arrived immi?
future options,
even if they did manage
to
grants) faced very limited
graduate.
of migration
itself has a
Finally, the family structure and the experience
effect on the degree of control parents have over teenage chil?
profound
dren. Many families are composed
of single working mothers and children.
These mothers have not been able to supervise their children as much as
or
they would like, and many do not have any extended
family members
close friends available to help with discipline and control. Even families with
two spouses present often have been apart for long periods because one
the family in migration.
Often children have been left in
spouse preceded
the islands or sent ahead with relatives to New York and sometimes
as
reunited
with parents who then try to assert authority.
The
teenagers
conflict which often ensues tends to create greater pressure for
generational
students to want to be "American" to differentiate
themselves
from parents.
Each of the different
below.
identity
types adopted
by these teens are described
Second-Generation
THE
ETHNIC
Black
Immigrants
805
RESPONSE
All of the teenage respondents
reported comments
by their parents about
American blacks which were very similar to those recorded in our interviews
The differences were in how the teens interpreted
with the first generation.
the ethnic-identified
what their parents were saying. In general,
teens
with
their
and
a
parents
reported seeing
agreed
strong difference between
themselves
and black Americans,
stressing that being black is not synony?
mous with being black American. They accept their parents' and the wider
society's negative portrayals of poor blacks and wanted to avoid any chance
that they will be identified with them. They described the culture and values
as including
of lower-class
black Americans
a lack of discipline,
lack of a
work ethic, laziness,
bad child-rearing
and lack of respect for
practices
education.
They contrast these with their parents' ethnic groups' values
strict discipline for children, a strong work
which include valuing education,
ethic and social mobility. They try to impress
to others that they are
or Haitian and most definitely
not American black. This allows
Jamaican
with their parents' negative views of American blacks.
them less dissonance
They do not reject their parents' culture and identities, but rather reject the
American
social system that would identify them as American
black and
the
African-American
culture
which
to
peer group
reject strongly
they would
be assigned by whites and others if they did not consciously
transmit their
ethnic identities.
on the basis of skin
Although
society may define the second generation
ethnic teens believed that being black Ameri?
color, the second-generation
can involves
more than merely having black skin. One young woman
criticized American blacks in this way:
Some of them [black Americans] think that their heritage includes not
being able to speak correctly or walk correctly, or act loud and obnoxious
to make a point. I don't think they have to do that. Just when I see black
Americans, it depends on how I see you on the street. Walking down the
street with that walk that moves a little bit too much. I would say, I'd think
you dropped out of high school.
These teens also differentiated
themselves from black Americans in terms
of their sensitivity to racism, real or imagined.
Some of the ethnic-identified
second generation
echo the feelings we heard from the first generation
that
American
blacks are too quick to use race as an explanation
or excuse for
not doing well:
There was a time back in the 40s and 50s and 60s or whenever when people
was actually trying to keep down black people and stuff like that. But, you
know, some black people now, it's like they not actually trying to make it
better, you know? Some are just like, people are like, oh, this place is trying
to keep me down, and they sulk and they cry about it, and they're not really
doing that much to help themselves. . . . It's just like hyping the problem
if they keep [saying] everything is racial, everything is racial.
806
International
teens who
The second-generation
it is that they are so successful when
they chalk it up to family values. They
close-knit
family values that stress
Migration
Review
are doing well try to understand
how
black Americans
are not - and often
say that their immigrant families have
Aware of, and sometimes
education.
the negative
that the whites they
sharing,
images of black Americans
also perceives
encounter
that whites treat
believe, the second generation
them better when they realize they are not "just" black Americans.
When
ever from their ethnicity, they responded
asked if they benefited
"yes": "It
don't tend to put you in the same category as black
seems white Americans
Americans."
Another respondent
said:
The West Indians tend to go that extra step because they, whites, don't
usually consider them really black Americans, which would be working
class. They don't consider them, I guess, as black. They see them as a
person.
The dilemma for the second generation
is that while they have a strong
sense of their own identities as very different from black Americans,
this was
not clear to other people.
Often both whites and blacks saw them as just
black Americans
and did not notice that they were ethnically
different.
When people did comment
on their ethnic difference
it was often because
of the way they talked and the way they walked. These were two charac?
teristics which were cited as reasons whites and other blacks gave for
weren't "really black." Whites tend
thinking those of the second generation
to let those of the second generation
know that they think of them as
with
the
to
the
rule
rule,
exceptions
being that most blacks are not good
these
However,
young people also know that unless they tell people
people.
of their ethnicity, most whites have no idea they are not black Americans.
Many of these teens coped with this dilemma
by devising
ways to
as
their
identities
West
Indians
or
Haitians.
telegraph
second-generation
One girl carried a Guyanese
map as part of her key chain so that when
looked
at
her
keys they would ask her about it and she could tell
people
them that her parents were from Guyana. One young woman described
having her mother teach her an accent so that she could use it when she
for a job or a place to live. Others just try to work it into the
applied
when they meet someone.
conversation
This means that their self-identifi?
cation is almost always at odds with the identifications
others make of them
in American society and that as a result they must
in impersonal
encounters
their ethnic identity:
consciously
try to accentuate
Q: When a form or survey asks for your race what do you put down?
A: Oh boy, that is a tough one. It's funny because, you know, when we fill
applications I never know what to check off, you know. I'm serious.
'Cause they have Afro-American, but they never have like Caribbean.
They do have white, Chinese. To tell the truth, I would like to be called
Caribbean, West Indian. Black West Indian.
Second-Generation
Black Immigrants
807
The teens who were around many black Americans
felt pressure from
their peers to be part of the group and to identify as black American. These
talk about passing for American at some points and
teens would consciously
for
Haitian
or
the way they talked
Jamaican at others by changing
passing
or acted:
When I'm at school and I sit with my black friends and, sometimes I'm
ashamed to say this, but my accent changes. I learn all the words. I switch.
Well, when I'm with my friends, my black friends, I say I'm black, black
American. When I'm with my Haitian-American friends, I say I'm Haitian.
Well, my being black, I guess that puts me when I'm with black Americans,
it makes people think that I'm lower class.. . . Then, if I'm talking like this
[regular voice] with my friends at school, they call me white.
THE
AMERICAN-IDENTIFIED
SECOND
GENERATION
The American-identified
second-generation
teenagers differed in how little
or ethnic identities to the interviewers.
they stressed their immigrant
They
follow a path which is more similar to the model posed in the straight line
theory. They stress that they are American because they were born here, and
of the American
they are disdainful of their parents' lack of understanding
social system. Instead of rejecting the black American
culture, it becomes
their peer culture and they embrace many aspects of it. This brings them
in conflict with their parents' generation,
most especially with their parents'
of American blacks. The assimilation
to America that they
understandings
undergo is most definitely to black America; they speak black English with
their peers, they listen to rap music, and they accept the peer culture of
friends. They are aware of the fact that they are
their black American
black American by others and that they can be accused of "acting
considered
white" if they don't speak black English and behave in particular ways. Most
their ethnic identities as background,
included
but none of them adopted
the stance that they were not, in a major sense, black American. When asked
about ethnic background
and how other people think of them, one respon?
dent replied:
Q. What is your ethnic background?
A. I put down American because I was born up here. I feel that is what I
should put down. . . .
Q. What do other people think you are?
A. Black American because if I don't say. . . . Like if they hear my parents
talk or something they always think they are from Jamaica. .. . But they
just think I am black American because I was born up here.
Many of these teens discuss how they don't control how others see them:
Some people just think I am American because I have no accent. So I talk
like American people. I don't talk Brooklynese. They think I am from down
south or something. ... A lot of people say you don't look Haitian. I think
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International
Migration
Review
I look Haitian enough. I don't know, maybe they are expecting us to look
fresh off the boat. I was born here and I grew up here, so I guess I look
American and I have an American accent.
Q. If people think you are black American do you ever do anything about
it?
A. No, I don't. If they ask me if I am American, I say yes. If they ask me
where my parents are from, I tell them Haiti.
In fact, they contrast being a black American as being more stylish and
"with it" than being from the islands:
I consider myself a black American. When I think of a black American I
don't think of them as coming from the West Indies.
Q. Any characteristics that come to mind?
A. I would not think of someone in a suit. I would think of a regular
teenager. I would think of a regular person. I think of someone that is
in style.
Q. What about someone from the islands?
A. Jamaicans. They dress with neon colors. Most of the girls wear gold and
stuff like that.
Some of the young people told us that they saw little if any differences
the ethnic blacks and the American
between
blacks. Many stressed the
Caribbeanization
of black New York and described how all the Americans
in being Caribbean now:
were interested
It use to be Jamaicans and American blacks did not get along because
everyone was afraid of Jamaicans. But now I guess we are closer now. You
tell an American that you are Jamaican and it is no big deal. Americans
are acting more like Jamaicans. Jamaicans are acting like Americans.
Q. What do you mean by acting like each other?
A. Sure there are a lot of Americans out there speaking Patois. And then
all the Jamaicans are coming over here and they are like "Yo, what's up"
and they are like that. Pretty soon you can't really tell who is Jamaican
and who is American.
teens have expressed
to
However, the parents of the American-identified
their children the same negative impressions
of American
blacks that the
ethnic-identified
teens reported.
These teenagers
report many negative
of
American
blacks
their
appraisals
by
parents:
They always say Haiti is better in this way or in that way. They say the kids
here have no respect. The kids here are brought up without any supervision.
My father is always talking about they [American blacks] be hanging out on
the corner. And he says you won't find Haitians doing that. My mom always
says you will marry a Haitian. Why are you talking to those American boys?
This young Haitian-American
teen tries to disagree with her mother and
to temper her mother's interpretations
of American blacks:
Q. Are there any characteristics or traits that come to mind about Haitian
Americans?
Second-Generation
Black Immigrants
809
A. Not really. I don't really - cause most people are Haitian American if
they are born here. . . . Like me, I don't know if I act like a Haitian or
do I have Haitian characteristics, but I'm mostly - like everything I do
or like is American. My parents, they do not like American blacks, but
they feel that they are lazy. They don't want to work and stuff like that
from what they see. And I feel that, um, I feel that way too, but
sometimes it won't be that person's fault, so I try to stick up for them.
And my mother is like, yeah, you're just too American.
In marked contrast to the ethnic-identified
teens, though, the Americanidentified teens either disagreed with their parents' statements about American
or
blacks, reluctantly
agreed with some of it but provided
qualifications,
perhaps most disturbingly accepted the appraisals as true of American blacks
in general and themselves as American blacks. This young Trinidadian Ameri?
can swallows her parents' stereotypes and directly applies them to herself:
Q. How close do you feel in your ideas about things to West Indians?
A. Not very close. My feelings are more like blacks than theirs. I am lazy.
I am really lazy and my parents are always making comments and things
about how I am lazy. They are always like, in Trinidad you could not be
this lazy. In Trinidad you would have to keep on working.
The fact that the teens are identifying as American and that their parents
have such negative opinions of Americans causes some conflict. The teens
either adopt a negative opinion of themselves or disagree with their parents'
of American blacks. But it is not just their parents who criticize
assessments
black Americans. These youngsters are very aware of the generalized
negative
view of blacks in the wider culture. In answer to the question "do whites have
an image of blacks," all of them responded
that whites had a negative view of
blacks seeing them as criminal, lazy, violent and uncaring about family. Many
of the teenagers prefaced their remarks by saying that they did not know any
whites, but that they knew this is what whites thought through the mass media
in buses, trains and
and through the behaviors of whites they encountered
stores. This mostly involved incidents like whites protecting
their handbags
when the teenagers arrived or store clerks following them and expecting them
to shoplift. This knowledge
that the society in which they live devalues them
because of their skin color and their identity affected these teens deeply.
THE
IMMIGRANT-IDENTIFIED
TEENS
The more recently arrived young people who are still immigrant-identified
differed from both the ethnic and the American-identified
youth. They did
not feel as much pressure to "choose" between identifying with or distancing
from black Americans as did either the American or the ethnic teens. Strong
in their identities with their own or their parents' national origins, they were
neutral toward American distinctions
between ethnics and black Americans.
as defining their
or their birthplace
They tended to stress their nationality
International
810
Migration
Review
growing up and attending
identity. They also pointed to their experiences
school in a different country. This young man had dreadlocks and a strong
Jamaican accent. He stresses his African roots and lets his Jamaican origin
speak for itself:
Q. What is your ethnicity? For example, when forms or surveys ask what
your ethnic group or ancestry is what do you put?
A. African.
Q. Do you ever put Jamaican or anything?
A. No, not really. Only where Jamaican comes up is if someone asks where
you're from. I'll say I am from Jamaica.
Q. What do people usually think you are?
A. They say I am Jamaican.
Q. They know that immediately?
A. Yeah.
Q. How do they know?
A. I change my voice. I don't have to tell them. I think it's also because of
my locks sometimes and the way I carry myself, the way I dress.
While an ethnic-identified
is aware that she might
Jamaican American
be seen by others as American and thus actively chooses to present herself
as Jamaican,
an immigrant-identified
could not conceive
of
Jamaican
herself as having a choice, nor could she conceive
of being perceived
by
others as American. While an ethnic-identified
teen might describe herself
as Jamaican American,
for the immigrant
teen Jamaican would be all the
label needed.
Most teens in this category were recent immigrants
them?
teens classified
selves. The few U.S.-born
as immigrant-identified
had
strong family roots on the islands, were frequent visitors to the islands, and
had plans to return to live there as adults. A crucial factor that allows these
this identity
to maintain
is that their accents and styles of
youngsters
clothing and behavior clearly signaled to others that they were foreign born.
Q. How important is it to you that your friends think of you in terms of
your ethnicity?
A. Oh, very important. You know, I try hard not to lose my roots, you know,
when I come to the United States. A lot of people who come here try to
lose their accent, you know. Even in the workplace, you know, because
they fear what other people might think of them. Even in the workplace.
Me, I never try to change, you know, the way I am. I always try to, you
know, stay with them, the way of my culture.
Q. So it's something you want people to recognize?
A. Yeah, definitely, definitely, absolutely.
Q.Why?
A. Why? I'm proud of who I am, you know. I'm proud of where I'm from
and I'm not going to change because somebody might not like the way
I walk, talk or dress, you know.
Second-Generation
Black Immigrants
811
of birthplace was stressed repeatedly
The importance
by the immigrantas they stressed their difference from American-born
co-ethnics:
identified
Q. What would you put on a form or survey that asked about your ethnicity?
A. I'll say I'm Jamaican. You gotta say where you come from.
Q. And do you think of yourself
American?
more as a Jamaican
or more as an
A. I think of more of a Jamaican 'cause it's, I wasn't born here. I was born
in Jamaica and was there for fourteen years.
Q. And what about kids who are born in America, but their parents were
born in Jamaica?
A. Well, you see that is the problem. You see, kids whose parents are
Jamaican, they think that, well, they are Jamaican. They need to recheck
that they're Americans 'cause they was born in the country and they
wasn't born outside the country. So I think they should, you know, know
more about American than Jamaican.
Some who adopt this strong identity with the immigrant
country were
born in the United States, but the combination
of strong family roots on the
island, frequent visits, and plans to go live there when they are older allows
them to think of themselves
as not really American at all. This is especially
easy to do in the public high schools where there are large numbers of freshly
from the islands.
arrived youngsters
Q. What do you think your race is?
A. Well, I'm black. I consider myself black. I don't consider myself black
American, Afro-American and stuff like that because it's hard to deter?
mine, you know, for a person as an individual to determine himself to
be Afro-American. . . . I'll be more a Guyanese person because certain
things and traditions that I am accustomed to back home, it's still within
the roots of me. And those things have not changed for a long period
of time, even though you have to adapt to the system over here in order
to get ahead and cope with what is going on around you.
While the ethnics tended to describe people treating them better when
their ethnic origins, and the Americans
tended to stress the
they described
antiblack experiences
they have had and the lack of difference between the
the immigrant
teens spoke about anti-im?
foreign born and the American,
and discrimination
and responded
with pride in their
migrant
feelings
national origins.
CONTRASTING
IDENTITIES
In some sense one can see each of these identities as being an embrace of
a particular
to another
identity, as well as an opposition
identity. The
American-identified
to the American
black
youth are in fact assimilating
subculture in the neighborhood.
It is the American black cultural forms they
are adapting
to their parents'
ethnic
to, and they do so in distinction
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white identities. These students adopt
identities and the wider mainstream
that
some of the "oppositional"
American black teenagers
have been
poses
to show toward academic achievement:
observed
the idea of America, the
idea of opportunity,
and the wider society (Ogbu, 1990; Fordham,
1988;
Portes and Zhou, 1993). They are also opposed
to their parents' outlooks
and ideas, stressing that what worked as an outlook and a life strategy and
in the islands does not work in the United States.
a child-raising
technique
These teens tend to adopt a peer culture of racial solidarity and opposition
What is clear from the interviews is that this stance of
to school authorities.
in
to a peer culture, but the vast
is
part a socialized
opposition
response
of
comes
about
it
as
a
reaction
to
their life experiences.
Most
majority
the teens respond to their experiences
with racial discrimina?
specifically,
tion and their perceptions
of blocked social mobility. The lives of these
dream of their
youngsters
basically lead them to reject the immigrant
parents toward individual social mobility and to accept their peers' analysis
of the United States as a place with blocked social mobility where they will
not be able to move very far.
The American-identified
teens do not seem to be aware of the scholarly
literature
and the perceptions
described
by the ethnic and immigrant
the
that
born
are
youngsters
foreign
higher social status than the American
born. In the peer culture of the neighborhood
and the school,
these
describe a situation
in which being American
is higher social
teenagers
status than being ethnic. For instance, several girls described
"passing" as
in order not to be ridiculed or picked on in school.
black American
I used to be scared to tell people that I was Haitian. Like when I was in
eighth grade there were lots of Haitians in the ESL classes, and people
used to beat them up. They used to pick on them. I said to myself I am
going to quiet down, say I am American.
When asked about the images others held of being from the islands, most
of the teens described neutral attributes, like styles of dress. However, many
who identified
as Americans
also described
with the
negative associations
The
identities.
said
most
immigrants'
Jamaicans
people thought of drug
when they thought
dealers
A few of the teens also
about Jamaicans.
intimated
that the people from the islands were backwards in not knowing
how to live in a big city, both in terms of appreciating
the wonders of the
city and in terms of being street smart in avoiding crime and hassles with
other people. In terms of the former attribute, the teens described people
from the islands who were not accustomed
to shopping
in big malls or
to
a
access
wide
of
consumer
having
goods.
variety
Not one of the American-identified
teens voiced the opinion
of the
overwhelming
majority of the ethnic teens that whites were more likely to
like the foreign born. In part, this reflected the differences
the groups had
in their contact with whites. Most of the inner city ethnic-identified
teens
Second-Generation
Black Immigrants
813
had almost no contact with whites, except for teachers. They also are in
schools where the vast majority of the students are foreign born or second
The larger number of middle-class
teens who were ethnic-iden?
generation.
in citywide magnet high
tified were more likely to have white classmates
scnools, in parochial schools or in suburban schools or workplaces.
The inner city American-identified
teens also voiced more positive ap?
than did the immigrant
or the ethnic-identified
praisals of black Americans
also reflect the reality of living in neighborhoods
teens. Their descriptions
A majority of the American-identified
where there is crime and violence.
is that they work hard and
teens said that a good trait of black Americans
These
the
are
same
children
whose parents describe
very
they struggle.
black Americans
as
to
and
take advantage
of the
primarily
lazy
unwilling
to
available
them.
The
children
seem
to
be
a
opportunities
perceiving
reality
that the parents cannot or will not.
that are all black and attend
Many of these teens live in neighborhoods
schools that are all black, too. So, aside from teachers, these young people
have almost no contact with white Americans.
This does not stop them from
absorbing the fact that whites have negative stereotypic views of blacks. But
blacks who come in contact with whites who tell them
unlike the middle-class
that they are "good blacks," these youths live in the urban areas that are
associated with crime, they dress like the typical black urban youth, and they
talk with Brooklyn
accents and black American
slang. When they do
encounter whites in public places, the whites do not ask about their parents'
backgrounds:
Q. Have you ever experienced any discrimination or hostility in New York?
A. From being Trinidadian no. But because of being black, you know,
everybody stereotypes. And they say "blacks, they tend to steal, and stuff
like that." So, like, if I am walking down the street and a white lady go
by and they smile and I smile. They put their bag on the other side.
The
parents of these teens grew up in situations where blacks were the
majority. The parents do not want their children to be "racial" in the United
States. They define "being racial" as being overly concerned
with race and
with using race as an excuse or explanation
for lack of success at school or
on the job. The first generation
tends to believe that, while racism exists in
the United States, it can be overcome or circumvented
through hard work,
and the right values and attitudes. The second generation
perseverance
racism and discrimination
experiences
constantly and develops perceptions
of race on their lives and life chances that
of the overwhelming
influence
differs from their parents' views. These teens experience
being hassled by
and
store
not
even
owners,
police
being given jobs,
being attacked on the
streets if they venture into white neighborhoods.
The boys adopt black
American culture in their schools, wearing flattops, baggy pants, and certain
to the image that they project of the "cool
types of jewelry. This contributes
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pose" which in turn causes whites to be afraid of them. This makes them
that blacks are
angry and resentful. The media also tells these youngsters
disvalued by American society. While parents tell their children to strive for
the
upward mobility and to work harder in the face of discrimination,
teens think their chances of success by doing that are
American-identified
very slim.
This
causes a wide gulf between the parents and their children. These
Americans.
For
parents are absolutely terrified of their children becoming
the children
to be American
is to have freedom
from the strict parental
controls of the immigrant
parents. This is an old story in the immigrant
saga that one can see in novels and movies about conflicts between Jewish
and Italian immigrants
and their children. But the added dimension
in this
situation is that these parents are afraid of the downward
social mobility
an American
that becoming
black represents
to them. And these parents
have that idea reinforced
whites
who tell them that they are
by
constantly
better than American blacks.
One question I asked about how things had changed since the civil rights
movement
shows the different perceptions
of the teens about race in United
States society. The ethnic-identified
gave answers I suspect most white
Americans would give. They said that things are much better for blacks now.
They state that they now can ride at the front of the bus and that they can
go to school with whites. The irony, of course, is that I was sitting in an
all-black school when they told this story. The vast majority of the Ameri?
teens state that things are not better since the civil rights
can-identified
movement.
now is "on
They think that the change is that the discrimination
the down low," covered up, more crafty. Some pointed out that we were in
an all-black school. The result of these different world views is that the
structure that is open to hard work is
parents' view of an opportunity
undermined
their
children's peer culture and more im?
by
systematically
of these teens.
portantly, by the actual experiences
On the other hand, the ethnic-identified
teens, whose parents are more
to
be
class
well
who
middle
and
or
attend parochial or magnet
likely
doing
schools and not the substandard
neighborhood
high schools, see clearer
and
rewards
the
existence
of racism and
ahead,
opportunities
despite
Their parents' message that hard work and perseverance
discrimination.
can circumvent
racial barriers does not fall on unreceptive
ears. The
ethnic-identified
embrace an ethnic identity in direct line from
youngsters
their parents' immigrants
identity. Such an identity is basically in part in
to
their
and in solidarity with their parents'
opposition
peers' identities
identities.
These youngsters
stress that they are Jamaican
Americans
and
that, while they may be proud of their racial identity as black, they see strong
differences
between themselves
and black Americans.
see
They specifically
their ethnic identities
as keys to upward social mobility,
for
stressing,
Second-Generation
Black Immigrants
815
instance, that their parents' immigrant values of hard work and strict discipline
help them to succeed in the United States when black Americans fail. This
- it is in the context
ethnic identity is very much an American-based
identity
of American social life that these youngsters base their assumptions
of what it
In fact, often the pan-ethnic identity as
means to be Jamaican or Trinidadian.
Caribbean or West Indian is the most salient label for these youngsters, as they
see little differences among the groups and it is more important to differentiate
as second-generation
nonblack Americans.
The distancing
themselves
that
often leads them to accept many
these teens show from black Americans
negative stereotypes of black Americans. These youngsters tend to have ethnic
friends from a West Indian background, white American friends, and very few,
if any, black American friends.
The immigrant-identified
teens are different from either of the other two,
in part because of how they think about who they are not, as well as how
teens have a strong identity
as
they think about who they are. These
or Trinidadian,
but this identity tends to be related to their
Jamaican
interactions
with other Jamaicans
rather than their inter?
or Trinidadians
actions with black or white Americans.
These youngsters
identify with their
or their parents' homelands,
homelands
but not in opposition
to black
or in opposition
Americans
to white Americans.
tend
be
to
immersed
They
in the immigrant
to have friends who are all the same ethnicity
community,
or from other islands. They tend to be more recent arrivals. Unlike the
from American
ethnic-identified,
however, they do not distance themselves
blacks, and they have neutral or positive attitudes and relations with them.
At the same time, they see themselves
as different from, but not opposed
Americans.
black
to,
These identities are fluid and change over time and in different social
contexts. There are cases we found of people who describe being very black
American-identified
when they were younger and who became more immi?
when they came to high school and found a large immigrant
grant-identified
community. Most new arrivals to the United States start out as immigrant-iden?
tified, and the longer they are in the United States the more they begin to think
of themselves in terms of American categories. The kind of social milieu the
child faces, especially the school environment,
has a strong influence on the
outcome. A school with many black Americans leads to pressure to identity
and school with many immigrants makes it
racially; likewise a neighborhood
possible to avoid thinking much about American categories. In the face of much
not to follow the rules and
school environment
pressure in the neighborhood
not to succeed academically, youngsters who are doing well in school and do
value education
come to stress their ethnic backgrounds
as an
increasingly
for
their
ambition
and
success.
explanation
The American
either/or
racial classification
system which tends to push toward an
of people as black or white tends to make the immi-
designation
816
International
Migration
Review
identify the
grant option harder to hold onto. When others constantly
as a black and refuse to make distinctions
individual
based on black
ethnicity, there tends to be pressure for the individual to adapt their identity
- either to
to that outside identification
say "Yes, I am black," and to accept
with
black
Americans
or
to resent the characterization
and
categorization
ethnic
identification
as
make
Trinidadian
American.
an
The
Ameri?
strongly
can myopia about ethnic differences within the black community
makes the
middle ground immigrant
identity unstable. Because every young person
is aware of the negative images held by whites and the wider society of black
of an American
the acceptance
black identity also means the
Americans,
of the oppositional
of that identity. Oppositional
character
acceptance
as Ogbu (1990) clearly argues, are self- and group-affirming
identities,
for stigmatized
identities
groups
defining as good and worthy, traits and
which are the opposite of those valued by the majority group.
characteristics
This tends to operate to downwardly
level the aspirations
of the teens.
IMPLICATIONS
OF THE
PATTERNS
shown by the ethnic-identified
Some of the distancing
teens in the sample
vis-a-vis underclass black identity and behaviors is the same for middle-class
black Americans.
blacks
Elijah Anderson (1990) has noted that middle-class
in
in a gentrifying
use
various
verbal
and
neighborhood
Philadelphia
to
to
nonverbal
others
that
are
not
from
the
strategies
convey
they
ghetto
of the ghetto-specific
and that they disapprove
behaviors of the blacks that
live there. Being an ethnic black in interactions
with whites seems to be a
distance from the ghetto blacks. Thus, the
shorthand
way of conveying
reserves their ethnic status for use as an identity device
second generation
to stress their distance from poor blacks and to stress their cultural values
with American
which are consistent
middle-class
values. This same use of
an ethnic identity is present among first-generation
of all social
immigrants
in New York.
classes, even those in racially segregated
poor neighborhoods
in the segregated
second
with little
generation
neighborhoods,
for social mobility, seems to be unaware that status as a black ethnic
conveys higher social status among whites, in part because as of yet they
have not had much contact with whites. The mass media conveys to them
the negative image of American blacks held by whites, but does not convey
to them the image among intellectuals,
middle-class
whites and conserva?
tive scholars, such as Thomas Sowell, that they have cultural capital by virtue
of their immigrant
status. They do get the message that blacks are stereo?
in
whites
negative ways, that the all black neighborhoods
typed by
they live
in are violent and dangerous,
and that the neighborhoods
of whites are
safe. They also encounter
a peer culture which values black
relatively
American cultural forms. The immigrant culture of struggle, hard work and
The
chance
Second-Generation
Black Immigrants
817
is experienced
in
success that their parents try to enforce
see
their
these
them
They
youngsters.
parents denying
negative ways by
that their American
peers enjoy and, unlike the middle-class
privileges
associate hard work, lack of dating and
youth, they do not automatically
and
scholastic
achievement
with social mobility. In the peer
stress
on
partying,
teens tend to be the best
culture of the school, immigrant and ethnic-identified
inner city schools, newly arrived immigrants
students. In the neighborhood
who have attended
better schools in the islands tend to out-perform
the
students who have spent their lives in the substandard New York City public
schools. This tends to reinforce the association between ethnicity and school
success - and the more American identified adopt an adversarial stance toward
school. Warner and Srole (1945), in their study of Yankee City in the 1930s,
report that it is the socially mobile white ethnics whose ties to the ethnic group
and the ethnic identity decline. It is the individuals who are stuck in the lower
classes who turn to their ethnic identities and groups as a sort of consolation
educational
prize:
Our class system functions for a large proportion of ethnics to destroy the
ethnic subsystems and to increase assimilation. The mobile ethnic is much
more likely to be assimilated than the non-mobile one. The latter retains
many of the social characteristics of his homeland. . . . Some of the
unsuccessfully mobile turn hostile to the host culture, develop increasing
feelings of loyalty to their ethnic traditions, become active in maintaining
their ethnic subsystems, and prevent others from becoming assimilated.
But, generally speaking, our class order disunites ethnic groups and
accelerates their assimilation, (p. 284)
It could
be that the process will be exactly the opposite
for black
In
the
and
ethnics.
this
mobile
black
more
case,
immigrants
socially
cling
to ethnic identity as a hedge against one's racial identity. The less mobile
to stressing an ethnic identity in the social worlds
blacks see little advantage
in which they travel, which are shared mostly with black Americans.
Stress?
ing an ethnic identity in that context risks being described as "acting white,"
the white stereotypes
which
being seen as rejecting the race and accepting
know
are
not
lives
their
true.
they
everyday
through
in race relations in the United States since the 1960s are
changes
and most surely involve a mixing of class and race. Some
very complicated
white Americans
are trying to see the difference
between ghetto inner city
blacks, whom they fear and do not like, and middle-class
blacks, whom they
do not fear and whom they would like to have contact with, if only to prove
to themselves
that they are not racist or, in a more formal sense, to meet
their affirmative
goals.
The
Middle-class
blacks realize this and try to convey their class status to
others in subtle and not so subtle ways (Feagin, 1991). The immigrants
also
utilize the fact that New Yorkers tend to use foreign-born
status as a proxy
for the class information
The white New Yorkers we
they are seeking.
818
International
Migration
Review
do notice differences
interviewed
among blacks, and they use ethnic differ?
If the association
found here between
ences as clues for class differences.
this perception
could become
social class and ethnic identity is widespread,
of
It
could
be
that
the
children
a self-fulfilling
poor parents will
prophesy.
not keep an ethnic identity and the children whose parents achieve social
mobility will keep the ethnic identity. This will reinforce the image in the
minds of whites that the "island people" are "good blacks," thus giving the
decisions and the like to ethnic blacks over American
edge in employment
blacks.
On the other hand, it remains to be seen how long the ethnic-identified
teens will continue
to identify with their ethnic back?
second-generation
is
also
to
the
This
related
fact
that whites tend to make racial
grounds.
when
it
comes
to
about
blacks. The second generation
identity
judgements
does not have an accent or other clues which immediately
their
telegraph
ethnic status to others. They are aware that, unless they are active in
their identities,
and that often
they are seen as black Americans
conveying
in encounters
with whites the status of their black race is all that matters. It
could be that by the time they have their children they will have decided
that the quest not to be seen as a black American will be a futile one.
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